Zabelin: Azerbaijan Has Right to Reclaim Karabakh

'If Russia has the right to retake its historical land of Crimea, then Azerbaijan too does have the right to retake its historical and ancestral land of Nagorno-Karabakh,' Head of Azerbaijan's Russian Community, MP Mikhail Zabelin said addressing the international conference on the theme 'Russia-Azerbaijan: Interreligious dialogue and Islamic solidarity to peace, security and cooperation' held in St. Petersburg, APA's Russia bureau reported.

'Today the retaking of Crimea was talked about here. It was noted that Russia had regain Crimea, which is its historical land. So, if Russia has the right to retake its historical land of Crimea, then Azerbaijan too does have the right to retake its historical and ancestral land of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is under Armenian occupation. We do have the right to do this then,' Zabelin said, noting that during the Karabakh War all the ethnic and religious minorities in Azerbaijan fought for their homeland.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar...